So at 2023s midpoint a few bands and their respective debuts are arguably vying for the year’s best Swedish death metal release (with Iron Flesh Church of the Dead, Angerot and Wretched Fate certainly in the conversation for non debuts). One, Come, Sweet Death’s, hacking, slashing Dismember homage, Imperishable. And two, the debut from Swtizerland’s superbly named Vomitheist, which culls from the more reeking stench of Nihilist early Entombed.

NekroFuneral is by far the nastier, meatier, more rotten of the two, with a filthier HM2 tone and more forays into d-beat, and doomier, heftier crustier realms. So there are two distinct poisons to pick from, but both are certainly going to kill you somehow.

With Left Hand Path and the Nihilist demos as a clear base point, NekroFuneral is full of those classic “Revel in Flesh” canters and grooves that the genre is known for with the likes of opener “Strangled in Entrails”, halfway point of “Symbiotic Putrefaction”, ” Gut Asphyxiation”, and short galloping “NekroFuneral”.

But also, in direct contrast to Come, Sweet Death’s razor-sharp assault, or Angerot’s beef, this has a glistening, visceral stench throughout that permeates each blast beat, lumbering groove, or shambling slower riff, that adds a bit of Autopsy foulness to the sounds like the start of “Epidemic Disembowelment”, “Morbid Decomposition” (which has a passing resemblance to “Disembowel”), “Putrefaktor” or rollicking “Tormenting Fungal Infestation” .To hammer it home there is a song called “Chapel of Abhorrent Reek and Festering Slime”, though it is a brief instrumental track.

The 12-minute closer “Carnivorous Cult”, does a little of everything with a mix of blasts, canters, and a final few minutes that repeats the shambling, grimy riff, which while fun, overstays it’s welcome a little but doesn’t really change the fact that Vomitheist is going to be a major player in the genre moving forward.

[Visit the band's website]

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